Chicago area guitarists

[synthdogg]

I'm not sure which forum is correct to post this in:

My "go-to" guitarist is leaving town, and I've recently relocated to the Chicago area. Can anybody turn me on to some area session guys that you really belive in to hire for future sessions?

I have one acoustic player that I'm pretty comfortable with, but would love some options.

For electric, I mostly need a good tone-conscious rhythm player for occasiosnal album/song work, but mostly commercial/corporate music. A great lead player would be good on some things, but I can always find a seperate guy for that.
So mainly, someone who can get that modern "Whatever's on the radio" sound, and know that his part is lending itself to the track, not being featured by it.

I'm sad to bee losing my security blanket, but excited to see what else is out there!
Thanks!

[jeff deff]

I'm in Chicago and have a couple guys I work with. One is great with country, soul and rock, one who is good on metal. Also, I've got a great upright player and pedal steel guy. They all have day jobs, but are fantastic players with lots of studio experience. Send me an email at jpanall(at)artic(dot)edu. I can send you MP3s of some stuff if you are interested.

[Berolzheimer]

Look up Victor Sanders, he's a great guy & can play just about anything. A very fine engineer as well.

[Drumsound]

Check out Steve Gerlach! He's an amazing player, singer, writer and a great guy.

[thejook]

Dan Wean, the studio manager at Gravity Studios...

Record there too...best combination.

[ALL*MYTEE]

Hi SD--and welcome to town.

One person you might talk to is Geoff Benge--he runs a very down home guitar shop on Damen and seems to know lots of players. Just google Geoff Benge Guitar.

Congrats on your move--it's a great city!

[Ollie]

Rob Williams, Ernie Denov, Fareed Haque, Pat Kelly, and probably many more. All are great players with different approaches.

[Berolzheimer]

Originally Posted by Ollie

Rob Williams, Ernie Denov, Fareed Haque, Pat Kelly, and probably many more. All are great players with different approaches.

Ernie the Attorney! And Fareed! My old homies.......

[Chuck B]

I work for a big music house in chicago and our go to guy is bill rupert. he's an animal at the guitar and he's really good at getting a sound he hears or getting "genre" sound. great acoustic and electric, I've never actually met a better player. As far as I know he's been the go to session guy in chi town for quite a while. PM for his number if you need it.
also, jonh rice is a great option for more country blues and dobro
hope this helps
if you end up calling him tell him chuck sent you

[Farview]

I got a guy who is a terrific guitar player (and drummer) with top notch gear, good ear, quick, and understands many styles of music. He is my go-to guy for guitar and drums. His name is Jason Mallow. PM me for contact info.

[Mike Tholen]

Originally Posted by Chuck B

I work for a big music house in chicago and our go to guy is bill rupert. he's an animal at the guitar and he's really good at getting a sound he hears or getting "genre" sound.

If you like your guitar tracks coming outta a Roland effects pedal board and the guitar player just hands you his DI cable and say "So what kinda sound we ant fer this track?" then proceeds to flip through his presets till he thinks he's found it...then ask him to use an amp!! good luck he scoffs at real amps! like a brownface Vibrolux, Vox AC-30, Gretsch, Marshall 800, Diezel. NOPE BR wants to use a digital box.

on the other hand John Rice is a badass when it comes to ****ry/bluze slide stuff, mandlin, Dobro...

[Chuck B]

[QUOTE=Mike Tholen]If you like your guitar tracks coming outta a Roland effects pedal board and the guitar player just hands you his DI cable and say "So what kinda sound we ant fer this track?" then proceeds to flip through his presets till he thinks he's found it...then ask him to use an amp!! good luck he scoffs at real amps! like a brownface Vibrolux, Vox AC-30, Gretsch, Marshall 800, Diezel. NOPE BR wants to use a digital box.

ha ha ha, I'm laughing my ass off. you've obviously met billy.
I forgot about his reluctance to use real amps, I've had that problem with him before, he really does get weird about that. I use him mostly for non-critical parts in tv and radio commercials so i don't really mind his digital sounds. by the time the post mixer buries my track under some super loud VO it's hard to tell if the rhythm guitar is a MArshal 800 into a u87 into a api pre or a pod into a 001. well, maybe that's an over statement, but you see my point. I'm not doing gods work. it's jingles. he does have a really nice acoustic sound though. very clean player.

Mike, who do you like for e guitar in chicago?

[Mike Tholen]

I usually just do it all ourselves: www.genuinemusicinc.com
I know about the post mixes and all that crap but I just gotta use the real thing to get great sounds that I DO HEAR on the TV.
for super clean acoustic finger pick stuff, Craig McCreary (sp?) has been in.

[Gravity8058]

Yeah, I gotta go with Tony and Mike, Steve Gerlac and John Rice are great.

[elambo]

Who was your go-to guy?

[elambo]

Oops... Thread is 3 years old... Guess I missed that. While I'm at it:

Kraig McCreary is one of the finest acoustic players in town and his mind is an encyclopedia of scales.

Bill Rupert is popular for electric. I understand his resistance to amps (he's very comfortable with his rig), but I think it's insane. I know a few people who stopped using him because of this. Great player, but although his tone is fine it could be (should be) better.

Fareed is tops for flamenco/classical. Double scale though. Bit of a prima donna but worth the effort.

Pat Ferreri is God for hollowbody or classical.

For dobro or slide or lap steel or fiddle or country pickin', John Rice is ridiculous. Just great all-around. I did a session with John where I had him play a bunch of riffs on different instruments to tempo which I later edited together. Ended up being one of the coolest tracks I've done, thanks to him.

Greg Suran was insanely good before he moved to LA and became The Man. Damn I miss him. One of the best ears for pop/rock guitar the city has seen.